Edwards Seeks Momentum in Iowa (great NY Times article)

[JohnLocke]

Edwards Seeks Momentum in Iowa
By John M. Broder
Friday, March 10, 2007
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SIOUX CITY, Iowa, March 9--Outside the blinding glare of Hillarobama, John Edwards has been quietly building his campaign organization in the early primary and caucus states and amassing a bankroll to remain competitive in the crush of contests early next year.
He is in Iowa again this weekend on his 19th trip to the state since early 2005, far more than any of his Democratic rivals. He is investing heavily here in the belief that a victory in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 14, 2008, could make him unstoppable in the dozen or more contests from coast to coast that will quickly follow. The unspoken corollary is that a loss here could spell the end of his try for the White House.
“Iowa is important for everybody’s prospects,” Mr. Edwards said Friday in an interview between appearances in Council Bluffs and Sioux City. “It is critical for us.”
Although he has been on the road almost continuously since announcing his candidacy at the end of December, Mr. Edwards, the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee in 2004, is not getting nearly the public and news media attention of the two stars in the party, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. That is both a blessing and a curse.
He does not have to deal with scores of reporters at every event and front-page articles detailing his personal finances or his political feuds with rivals. He can skip from town to town in his chartered jet, picking up checks from donors and meeting intimately with small groups of voters.
(...)
“I’m keeping my head down and doing my work,” he said in response to a reporter’s question after an appearance before about 250 people at a center for the elderly in Council Bluffs. In the later interview he added: “This is a long campaign, and there will be ups and downs in the attention everyone gets. My plan is to focus on substance and whatever else needs to be done, including fund-raising.”
Mr. Edwards, a former one-term senator from North Carolina, is being coy about his fund-raising, in the hope of making a splash when first-quarter money figures are released next month.
(...)
Mr. Baron added that the campaign was conducting a robust Internet fund-raising effort and had already raised many times the $100,000 it brought in online in 2003.
An Internet fund-raising appeal begun last week after the conservative commentator Ann Coulter referred to Mr. Edwards using an antigay slur has already yielded more than $300,000, Mr. Baron said.
(...)
“Now it’s a jump ball,” said Gordon R. Fischer, a former Democratic Party chairman in Iowa. “John Edwards is in a very enviable position. He’s been through the caucuses before; he’s been to all 99 counties and 400 towns and cities all over Iowa campaigning. He’s done a good job since 2004 in keeping in touch with Iowa and Iowans. He’s ahead organizationally, but there’s 10 months to go.”
(...)
Meanwhile, on the ground in Iowa, voters are just starting to sample the goods on offer this year. Gina Hatcher, a 40-year-old county worker in Council Bluffs, said she was impressed with Mr. Edwards’s plan for universal health care, a more detailed program than any of the other candidates had offered this year.
“I think he’s honest about it,” Ms. Hatcher said, referring to Mr. Edwards’s estimate that providing health care to all Americans would cost as much as $120 billion and require higher taxes for some people. “Hillary has already had her swing at health care,” she added.
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Read the rest here.

[jwirr]

1. My brother attended the speech in Souix City - shock his hand.

Said they were expecting aboout 100 people and got 200. Said it was a really good speech.

[Czolgosz]

2. Nice article

[cynthia]

3. check out his site

http://johnedwards.com/

It's going to be a long race to '08